I am not going to start another conspiracy about Covid-19 but I do want to explore “Truth.”
Since the start of this pandemic I have been preaching at KCC online but over the past two months I have not been communicating online as I previously was. I became aware that there was lots of noise in the media, on our phones, laptops and TVs and did not want to just add to that noise for the sake of it.
I have been aware of a change of mood, partly in me but also in society. We started off as those who could pull together: clap the NHS; feed the thousands and; rise above this virus. There has been a growing awareness that we cannot create a quick fix to this virus and that we don’t have all the answers.
Underlying lots of the media coverage is a worldview.
What do I mean? I mean none of us operate in a vacuum. We are all influenced by a worldview and subscribe to this in our lives consciously or subconsciously.
“Most people catch their presuppositions from their family and surrounding society, the way that a child catches the measles. But people with understanding realize that their presuppositions should be *chosen* after a careful consideration of which worldview is true.”
Francis Schaeffer
A lot of main stream media such as the BBC don’t operate with a Christian worldview. They are not starting from the premise that God is in control and that there is a plan and a purpose – shock horror! We don’t live in a Christian country!
When we turn on BBC News we are faced with a view that says that this is all there is. The life you have is all you have. There is nothing outside of us only a closed universe.
“Without the infinite personal God, all a person can do, as Nietzsche points out, is to make systems. In today’s speech we would call them gameplans. A person can erect some sort of structure, some type of limited frame in which he lives, shutting himself up in that frame and not looking beyond it.”
Francis Schaeffer
You might think I am overreacting here but think about it.
I can put on Breakfast News and hear that my salvation is found in finding a vaccine. My life can be saved by a vaccine. Now I would love us to find a vaccine that works – and I pray for one, but a vaccine does not bring eternal life it actually just prolongs life until we eventually die, as does other good medicine.
I want to suggest that as a Christian I don’t have all the answers. As this season has developed I realise I need to humble myself. I am not the answer to the universe and its problems, I guess you already knew that?
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:4
I want to unpack some of the verse above over the next few weeks. The first part I want to pick up on is in verse 4 “will humble themselves.”
The BBC, SKY and other media outlets are not all knowing. You are not all knowing, I am not all knowing. We have to see that God is outside of time and History. God is sovereign and he is different from us in a good way.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9
God is not just a bigger version of a human – His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. As we reflect on recent months we need to humble ourselves.
History shows us that plagues and pandemics as we call them have existed before. They show us that a rhythm change is needed and as somebody who is part of a consumeristic western culture I am praying that we can all humble ourselves before God and see our need of him.
He is higher.
He is stronger.
He is in control.
The next time we turn on the TV or swipe our smart phone let us remember this and give thanks for this truth.
